Biomass may be becoming a suitable global resource for economies around the world and groups are increasingly looking for ways to utilize biomass to meet local needs (i.e., energy generation, heat generation, liquid fuels, compost, etc.). In order to use biomass to meet the needs of local communities, transporting, storing, conveying, and/or processing biomass is generally involved. Automation within the biomass industry may become commonplace and automation may be beneficial for biomass projects to be profitable. In many applications, a regulated flow of biomass within the process stream may be beneficial. Problems may arise within each process when continuous flow may be halted. There may be a need in the biomass industry for storage systems that discharge material with efficiency, reliability and versatility.
Biomass is typically a light fibrous material that may absorb moistures and may be reluctant to flow into automation equipment. The resistance to flow may be qualified for any material using metrics available within the solids flow industry. Some of the indexes for measuring flow ability include: Arching Index; Chute Index; Hopper Index; Rathole Index; Bin Density Index; Feeder Density Index; Flow Rate Index; and/or Spring Back Index.
While it may be helpful to know and understand these indexes, it may be very likely that the each batch of biomass may have varying flow characteristics. This means that these indexes may change continuously as the biomass properties (moisture, particle size, dirt content, density, etc.) change.
Typically, hoppers may be designed to accommodate one unique material. In some cases, the flow of material may halt when the material properties change. Typical agitation methods may oppose the adhesive and cohesive forces that may arise. This may consume more energy and can involve in some cases sweeping motion at multiple points in the process. Sweeping agitation may also generate more flow problems by compressing pockets of material in areas out of reach of the sweeping motion.